I was definitely feeling a bit not 100% probably because I was dehydrated from the wine tastings and perhaps didn’t drink enough water (even though I did have a cup after the massage).
I think that effect kind of caught up to me because when we got back to the car at 5:45pm and parked at the Girl and the Fig at 5:55pm for our 6pm dinner, I definitely wasn’t coming in with an appetite…
- Day 1 (March 8, 2024 – Sonoma, California): “Community Vibes”
- Day 2 (March 9, 2024 – Sonoma, California): “Sonoma Reality Checks”
- Day 3 (March 10, 2024 – Los Angeles, California): “Waterfalling Marathon”
Day 1 (March 8, 2024 – Sonoma, California): “Community Vibes”
It was 4:30am when I awoke to the alarm, which was like a typical workday for me.
Julie got up a half-hour later, and I’d imagine this was an early start for her.
Anyways, today was finally the day that we could do a couples getaway to the Sonoma Wine Country after three nature-related delays, which pushed back a trip that was supposed to happen on the last weekend of January.
Instead, we wound up pushing it back to the second weekend of February and then the first weekend of March, and they both were thwarted by powerful (and dangerous) atmospheric river storms.
Finally, there was this weekend, where we’ll have to spring forward on Sunday (ugh), but at least the weather was supposed to be nice today with somewhat light rain chances tomorrow (I guess that can’t be avoided on the weekends in NoCal this year).
So I went about getting prepared for the trip with any last-minute packing and loading up the car as well as having my typical kefir breakfast.
Julie was lagging, which I kind of expected, so I was fretting a bit about having to drive through the infamous LA Rush Hour just to escape Los Angeles on the long drive up to the Bay Area.
It wouldn’t be until about 6:15am when I was waiting in the car after loading up the majority of the stuff, but Julie wouldn’t be ready to go until 6:30am, which pretty much put us at the start of the bell curve of the LA Rush Hour.
Nevertheless, after a bit of stop and go traffic through the downtown area, we finally got through the familiar Valencia area and then ultimately down to the Grapevine some time around 8am.
Along the way, we did notice some snow in the mountains, which I guess was not surprising considering that intense storm that we got earlier this past Wednesday.
From there, the drive was smooth going with Julie napping a bit after engaging in some random conversations, but I wasn’t getting much in the way of sports talk or getting our iPhone to play music through the car speakers via Bluetooth or USB.
I didn’t know the KNBR frequency while driving so I was kind of disappointed about not hearing what they had to say about Bay Area Sports during the long dull Central Valley drive.
Nevertheless, Julie had to make a restroom break, and by the time we got to the Coalinga area around 9:45am, we saw that there was a rest stop at Harris Ranch.
So we did our business there, but then we saw some BBQ smokers, which got us wondering how well they do the smoked BBQ here.
Of course, we knew it wasn’t going to be Texas BBQ, but we wondered how close can it be over here, especially since we were near the “Cowswitz” slaughterhouses so you know the beef here must be very fresh.
And indeed, Julie got a brisket in a brioche sandwich as well as a pulled pork one, and it turned out that the brisket was very good (but the pulled pork was dry and seemingly missing something).
I think the next time we go up the Bay Area via the I-5, we’ll definitely look to checking out Harris Ranch as a stop instead of say Kettleman City for an In ‘N Out stop.
By 10am, we resumed our long haul drive, and we continued up the I-5 noticing some beautiful groves of almond trees that appeared to be flowering backed by the snow-capped mountains of the Sierras way in the distance.
Eventually, we then cut across the coastal range via the 152 near Los Banos, which was also a pretty busy and surprisingly long stretch with quite a few CHP nabbing speeders or controlling traffic here.
This was like the preferred way to get to San Jose (which a former classmate’s wife would call “Man Jose”; I’ll leave it up to the imagination as to why she said that).
Anyways, this was actually quite the busy drive even at this hour of the day when most people would be at work (unless they can flex hours and take long weekends, which seems to be more of the norm these days).
Nevertheless, after getting through the garlic-smelling Gilroy, we then joined the 101 Freeway heading north before getting onto the 85 and then the I-280 and making our way up around Silicon Valley towards Pacifica.
We were planning to meet my cousin’s family in Burlingame later today for dinner, but to buy some time, Julie and I were going to do a hike in Pacifica (basically pursuing Brooks Falls) before getting to their place.
I had last done Brooks Falls during Spring Break of 2019, but I did it solo while Julie and Tahia stayed at Fisherman’s Wharf.
So it would be nice to have some company this time around, and it would also be nice to enjoy the views given the fine weather we were having today (the last time I was here, it was drizzling and lightly raining with a low cloud ceiling blocking the views).
Nevertheless, after some nice scenic coastal driving down the Hwy 1 after getting across the Sharp Park Road, we then got through some local communities of Pacifica near Terra Nova, where it looked like school was still in session there.
We could definitely feel how exclusive these communities are as you’d have to be quite wealthy to be living here.
In any case, by about 12:45pm, we finally made it to the San Pedro Valley Park, which was where we’d start our hike.
But this time instead of just doing the waterfall hike in a shorter Brooks Creek Loop, we were intending to do a longer loop hike encompassing Montara Mountain for views of the ocean (though I wasn’t sure if we could see the San Francisco Bay from here).
We also didn’t have exact change on us as no one was here to break our $20 and the day use fee was $6.
I wasn’t sure if it was justified to spend that much on a relatively short hike like this.
So we just took our chances as we noticed there were quite a few other cars didn’t pay and display either (even though there were a handful of ranger trucks in the parking lot).
During this time, cousin Channing texted me asking what our ETA was, to which I replied that we were in Pacifica about to do a hike, and then we’d drive over to his place.
I didn’t commit to a time because I wasn’t exactly sure how much time we’d take on this hike.
After gearing up on this surprisingly mildly warm day (it must have been in the mid-60s by now), we promptly went up the ascending trail shared between Brooks Creek Trail and the Montara Mountain Trail behind the toilet facility.
Julie notice what she thought were blue mushrooms on the ground, but upon closer inspection, I thought they were more like nuts than they were fungi.
Nonetheless, we then got to a junction where we had the option of going to our right to do the Montara Mountain Trail loop in a counterclockwise manner or continue on the familiar trail up to the Brooks Creek Waterfall lookout, which was what I did the first time.
We opted to go the clockwise route while we saw a family do some trail running in the opposite direction.
We then promptly continued up the Brooks Creek Trail noticing that the trail connecting up with the lower path in the base of the valley was closed (probably due to a combination of deadfalls and flooding damage).
As the trail continued to ascend, both Julie and I were already starting to feel the sweat beading off of us as it was surprisingly warm.
We had been expecting to be freezing up here considering the constant rain and recent Winter storm that they had the prior weekend with lingering storms throughout the rest of this past week.
It didn’t take long before we started to get above the shade caused by out-of-place-looking eucalyptus trees that Julie and I had speculated must have been introduced from Australia.
We doubted that they were native here though we did notice that there were quite a bit of these trees on the slopes here.
That kind of made me doubt whether they really were introduced here or not given how much they have taken over the lower slopes of the San Pedro Valley.
Anyways, shortly after getting above the tree cover, at 1:30pm, we then got up to the familiar bench facing the Brooks Falls, which looked rather thin given the amount of rain that had fallen in the Bay Area over the past month.
I think they already exceeded their season’s rainfall total, and it all happened in pretty much one month!
Nevertheless, Julie and I took some time to document the waterfall, which was now in considerably better viewing conditions than when I first visited the place, when clouds were low enough to obscure the thin waterfall itself under some drizzling rain.
Today, it was a gorgeous day though the falls were in a bit of a shadow considering how much brighter everything else around it was.
Once we had our fill of the Brooks Falls, which didn’t take that long given its less than stellar flow, we then continued to ascend the Brooks Creek Trail towards the Montara Mountain Trail.
This was something that I didn’t do on my first go of this hike nearly 5 years ago, but with the good weather, it was now time to see what was up there.
As we continued further up the trail, we noticed that the vegetation seemed to get a little less dense.
Moreover, Julie noticed some trees that seemed to look waxy or “plasticky”, which made us wonder what species they were (though Julie’s Google-assisted plant ID app didn’t seem to do well with trees like this).
There were also other slightly more angled views of Brooks Falls as compared to the official viewing spot earlier on.
We also noticed the family that was trail running earlier was now making their way down past us near the apex, meaning that they did indeed do a counterclockwise loop, which we opted to do in the other direction.
Speaking of which, it certainly seemed like everyone we saw on this trail were going down the Brooks Creek Trail while we seemed to be the only people ascending it.
I don’t know if you’re supposed to do this in a counterclockwise manner, but I presumed that most of these people didn’t care too much about the waterfall because it might be harder to spot going down the Brooks Creek Trail instead of slowly ascending it like we were.
Anyways, by about 2pm, we made it up to a bench with a nice viewpoint towards the town of Pacifica and the Pacific Ocean right behind it.
This was where the Brooks Creek Trail junctioned with the Montara Mountain Trail, and I suspect that now it was pretty much going to be either flat or descending back to the car park the rest of the way.
We took our time enjoying this view because of the good weather on this day, which was a huge contrast to the amount of rain and lack of sun over the past month.
Even one passer-by who was apparently a local commented to us about how good the weather was today, and so we made sure to savor it.
This experience also reinforced to me that when it came to the Brooks Falls experience, this place was really more about the views over Pacifica and the San Pedro Valley on the other side of the ridge we were on (Montara Mountain) than it was about the waterfall.
So I was glad that we got to extend this hike unlike the last time I was here when low clouds and drizzling rain kind of dampened the experience when I did this solo nearly 5 years ago.
Once Julie and I had our fill of this view, we then continued our hike in a clockwise direction as we encountered a handful of more people going up in the opposite direction as us.
Along the way, we saw more benches with views towards Pacifica backed by the Pacific, and we could even see hints of more rocky headlands as we looked northwards towards the Golden Gate Park in the direction of the Golden Gate Bridge.
We also encountered a handful of more people going up in the opposite direction as us, and it wasn’t until we started descending back into the San Pedro Valley that we finally were caught up to by some trail runners and fast hikers going in the same direction as us.
I did notice that the signage indicating progress of the hike on the Montara Mountain Trail tended to point towards those going in the counterclockwise direction (with the distance signage not directed at us), which made me further wonder if we were doing this trail backwards.
Regardless, by about 2:55pm, we made it back to the parking lot to wrap up our loop hike and changing back into something more comfortable.
During the rest of the downhill on the way back down to the car, I guess we had stopped sweating so it wasn’t as hot as it was on our way up.
In other words, this was almost perfect hiking weather, and it was especially the case with this particular hike.
Anyways, I texted my cousin Channing that we were now on our way to his place, and that we’d get there in around a half-hour.
It turned out that as we were leaving Pacifica, there was some traffic heading north on the Hwy 1, but it had more to do with traffic lights combined with the volume of traffic (heading into San Francisco) than anything else.
Before we would be gaining momentum on the Hwy 1, we then went back up the Sharp Park Road, but then we’d eventually cut all the way to the I-280, then the I-380, and then the US101 (with some rush hour traffic in there) before getting into the city of Burlingame.
As we drove through some charming grid-style residential neighborhoods, we could see that this was actually a pretty well-off area.
When we pulled up to Channing and Carrie’s place at 3:35pm, we saw their son Carter walking home from school.
One thing that Julie and I noticed was that we probably wouldn’t be letting our daughter walk home alone from school given the amount of crime that our area has been seeing over the years.
So that kind of further reinforced that Burlingame seemed to be a nice area, and quite the place to raise a family.
Anyways, it seemed like Carter wanted to hang out at one of his friends’ house (don’t blame him since I’m sure adult conversations would bore any 6th grader), but his older sister Natalie (freshman in high school) hung out with us.
So we did some catching up, got a tour of the house, talked about their trip in Belize over the Winter Break, Natalie’s soccer (which gave us an idea of how much catching up Tahia has to do since she got her start in fastpitch softball late), some politics, and checked out their Tesla Powerwalls.
After all, we were seriously considering doing a battery solution to make us more impervious to utility blackouts, but we were also considering getting an electric car so we could spend more of the grid credits that the utilities aren’t going to pay us back for feeding into their grid.
Anyways, when all was said and done, we learned that Carrie was already at the pizza joint we were going to since she was already out there, and then met up with her a few minutes later as Channing and Natalie carpooled with Julie and I.
We ultimately got there a little after 5pm at this place called Blue Line Pizza, which apparently specialized in Chicago-style deep dish pizzas though they also had a lot of appetizers and beers, of course.
As we were getting all caught up on life in Burlingame, there were a couple of friends that just showed up (as I could see Natalie’s eyes wandering around to see if there were recognizable faces).
Apparently, this place was like a locals’ hangout, and it definitely seemed like people are bound to bump into someone they know here.
In our particular case, we got acquainted with a couple named Darryl and Varinia (sp?), where we discussed a lot of travel, some TV show that they’re into called White Lotus, some youth athletics (apparently Darryl coaches), and even indulged in some waterfalls talk upon learning about my website.
We also learned that Natalie and Carter get to hang out with Carrie’s parents on a trip of their choosing every year, which sounds wild.
They’re really lucky to get to do this, and it really made me think about how fortunate that Tahia was getting to go traveling with us on our trips (even if she’s not keen on spending some of that time chasing waterfalls).
Anyways, some time after 7pm or so, we wrapped up dinner, where it was clear that we probably ordered way more food than what could be eaten in one sitting.
That was because there were at least two deep dish pizzas that were hardly eaten as well as a bunch of appetizers that were also not munched on much (except perhaps Natalie’s cheese bread with pepperoni on it, which she devoured).
There was even one funny moment where Darryl spit out his beer (he says it went down the wrong tube though it’s the variety where you see in TV when someone hears something funny or arresting that makes you spit out the drink you have in your mouth).
Well, when we left, there was another family that seemed to recognize Channing, Carrie, and Natalie though we were all on our way out.
We spent a little more time hanging out just outside a gelateria shop though knowing what we know now about which gelati are genuine and which ones are “fake”, we could see that this place was the “made of powder” variety.
We relayed to Carrie and Channing what we learned from our prior Italy trip this past November, where the genuine gelati are kind of unassuming and packed in these stainless steel vats.
They don’t make them look big and colorful, which can only be accomplished if the flavors of the gelato were made with powder as opposed to real ingredients (especially the pistacchio).
And with that, it was 7:25pm by the time we got back to the car.
It was great catching with family on a trip like this, especially since Mom and Dad along with cousin Jennifer went up there a couple of weeks back.
Who knows how many more of these kinds of gatherings we’re going to be having, and we certainly left with the vibes that we really should do these get-togethers more often.
I know they’re coming down to LA for Spring Break at the end of this month, but unfortunately, we’ll be in Greece at that time.
So we drove out of Burlingame and headed towards the 101 freeway, where we then went pretty smoothly going northbound on the freeway until the freeway came to an end in San Francisco.
At that point, I guess one GPS told us that we could have taken the Bay Bridge and the ncut back across the Richmond Bridge to get to Sonoma, but we opted to just drive through San Francisco’s local streets, which were quite busy on a Friday night.
Recalling that Carrie advised us about how toll roads only collect if you’re heading towards the city by the bay and not when you’re leaving, we took advantage of this as we followed the local city streets to rejoin the 101 Freeway en route to the Golden Gate Bridge.
Then, we went across the bridge going northbound, and continued to follow the 101 until we got off the familiar straight shot Hwy 37 en route to the Hwy 121 before taking the Hwy 12 and heading north into downtown Sonoma.
Some parts of this road were pretty pitch black, which made me a little concerned about deer possibly darting out on the road, but there were some other cars around to I guess act as screens as we were following a handful of these cars.
Finally at around 8:55pm, we made it to the Best Western Sonoma, where we could finally unwind for the night.
We did bring some leftovers from the Blue Fin Pizza, and we were glad that they had a fridge in the room as well as a microwave in the brekkie area, which I’m sure we’ll take advantage of tomorrow.
Day 2 (March 9, 2024 – Sonoma, California): “Sonoma Reality Checks”
It was about 6:30am when I awoke to Julie’s alarm, and even though I felt like I could have slept in more, I wasn’t able to go back to sleep afterwards.
So took some time to get cleaned up and then try to get some blogging and photo organizing done since we kind of ran out of time and energy last night.
By about 7am, we then got ready for the included brekkie, which I had recalled wasn’t anything to write home about.
So we had our Blue Line Pizza leftovers at the ready, and it turned out that our hunches were true.
Sure there was a brekkie burrito with preservatives in them, which had to be nuked, but they did have some muffins as well as some hard boiled eggs, some cereal, and some coffee and tea.
It was pretty much standard continental brekkie fare, but we didn’t really want to stuff ourselves either considering there was going to be some wine tasting along with maybe some food to pair them with.
We ate outside in the pretty chilly morning since there wasn’t much seating space inside, and while out there, we saw that there was a nicely heated bubble bath with a shelter over it.
That would have been nice to experience last night though I wondered why we didn’t notice this the first time we stayed here.
Anyways, after having our fill of our basic brekkie of leftovers and continental fare, we then got into the car by 9:40am to get the day started.
The first venue was a winery called Viansa, which Julie picked because it had a nice views.
Even though it’s technically supposed to be open at 10am, we were told that we were supposed to show up around 15 minutes early for our tasting.
So we made the 5-mile drive south from downtown Sonoma, and we ultimately got up to the driveway for the Viansa Winery, where the line of conifer trees kind of reminded me of the estates in Toscana.
I guess this place left no doubt about their Tuscan heritage, and I wondered how that would translate into our tasting experience.
So we got to the Viansa Winery by 9:50am, and after walking through the entrance, which was flanked by wine barrels, we then walked up the steps into some kind of gift shop and deli, where we checked in.
Then, we were walked out to an outdoor terrace with a nice view towards a wetland that I think is the Sonoma Creek.
There was even a brief moment of sun coming out before some darker clouds were starting to dump some light rain in the hills in the distance (as today was forecasted to have a chance of rain).
So Julie and I took our time enjoying the views and trying to savor this experience.
I’m not sure how many venues can offer a view with their wine tasting, and so we definitely took our time taking shots and selfies.
Eventually, we got into our tasting, which was accompanied with some kind of pork riclette (basically pulled pork with pickled onions and some other pickled veggie) along with a pair of white wines followed by a pair of red wines.
The pork riclette was to be spread on some bread (kind of like a small bruschetta), which provided a nice texture to the food we had spread above it.
And it seemed like the white wines actually went well with the pork, which was surprising to me (thinking that red meats tend to go well with red wines), but maybe that just tells you how little I know about wines in general.
This tasting was actually more like a brunch-type experience, and at $50 per person, it wasn’t cheap.
Julie said she remembered the days when wine tastings were free, but I think in this age of high cost of living and high inflation, those days of freebies are long gone.
After having our fill of our wine tasting and our food, we then walked around the property a bit for some more photos before buying some gifts for the folks helping us to take care of Tahia while we were away.
We also got a couple of ciabatta sandwiches (one that’s a caprese while another was a prosciutto with salami).
We figured that we’ll need to put more food in our stomachs to offset the wine we’re going to drink at the next wine tasting tour, which would take place at the Gundlach Bundschu Winery.
However, when we left Viansa at 11:45am, we drove out towards Buena Vista first, which was said to be the oldest winery in Sonoma.
We didn’t book a tour here, but we were curious about what the experience might be like at least from the periphery.
So we ultimately got to the Buena Vista Winery at 12pm, where we walked up to the buildings and checked out a tasting area that was two stories and quite busy.
The host there let us walk around and take pictures though the other building that was also open for visitation required a tour.
As we read the signs along the walkways towards this part of the property, we learned that Buena Vista’s heritage began with some guy named Agoston Haraszthy.
He was a Hungarian that brought the wine trade out to this part of California before the California Gold Rush.
There were also other signs that we had read concerning Chinese laborers as well as other tid bits about the history of this place.
The other building that we checked out, which required a tour, kind of let us lightly visit the initial room, which were full of wine barrels as well as some seemingly out-of-place props like a stuffed bear as well as some other trinkets.
Once we had our fill of this place at 12:40pm, we then proceeded to drive down the road to the Gundlach Bundschu Estate to go onto our 1pm tour.
We had to finish our sandwiches though, which was kind of a bit of a rush (knowing that we’d have food safety issues if we waited to eat them even longer while they were sitting in the car).
In any case, we promptly got to the registration area, where even this place had quite a few people tasting wines and perhaps having food or something.
We were supposed to have a somewhat bigger tour, but apparently a good chunk of the group was very late so the guide started the tour without them.
We started off in the main shop and tasting room, where the guide poured us some pink-looking white wine, which I believe was called a rosee (sp?).
I forget if this particular wine had a lot of exposure to skin or little of it (resulting in the color), but it was interesting to note.
I also liked the flavor of this one since it was a bit on the sweeter and fruitier side (almost like a smoother Stella Rosa for lack of a better comparison given my limited wine knowledge).
Once that was done, we then walked across the commotion area towards a hobbit-looking hill where there was a tunnel and a double-door leading right into what we knew to be the cave part of the wine tour.
This was the main reason why Julie picked the Gundlach Bundschu Winery for a tasting tour, and so we proceeded to go inside the cave, where we immediately saw a large row of wine barrels flanking a narrow corridor that went quite a ways straight beneath this hill.
Apparently, Gundlach dug out this tunnel, which I’m sure took quite a while, but it was all to maintain a regular, humidity-controlled storage area for aging I think.
After a brief talk about the particulars about this tunnel (again, a lot of it I had forgotten and only got the highlights of what was said by the guide), we then walked all the way down to a T-intersection at the far side of the tunnel.
There, we saw a table with some photographs of generations of people belonging to either or both the Gundlach and Bundschu families (both names being the surnames of the owner and partner, respectively).
We got to try another couple of wines here, including some experimental one that was a bit rougher tasting (though to be honest, I couldn’t really tell).
And then, we walked out the “back door” of the tunnel, where we then saw a large field full of grape vineyards.
There were a couple more wine bottles that the guide set down, and he was explaining these fields, the cows and sheep that were naturally mowing, and how this winery strives to be both organic and regenerative.
I think Julie was really into this process as she was particularly interested in how you get organic certification and how you become “regenerative”.
I’m not sure if I got the regenerative part, but I suspect it comes down to not using pesticides (unless it’s “approved” by whoever gives the seal of approval), and even then, it’s a last resort measure if the natural means still aren’t cutting it.
That said, we did learn that the fires in 2020 caused a lot of smoke damage to the crops, and thus this winery didn’t even have a wine offering that year.
Considering how much goes into this process, that could be quite a major loss, and so I could see why Gundlach Bundschu is the first family-owned winery that still exists (as Buena Vista may be the oldest, but it was sold off).
After all, the passion from one generation of farmers may not carry down to the next generation, and I guess that is how family wineries end up getting sold off, and I guess it’s a testament to the family’s passion to keep this thing going.
Anyways, we then walked over to another lookout area closer to the pond, where we could see the road leading up to the estate as well as more fields along with some solar panels powering most of the estate.
I guess over the years of chasing waterfalls, Julie and I have been sensitized to how much the environment matters, and I guess what we’ve been taught in this tour makes a lot of sense in terms of how the environment impacts the harvest.
One other takeaway I got from this part of the tour was that the Petaluma Gap was where the ocean breezes come through and they manage to make their way to Sonoma Valley.
This can cause the grape skin to grow thicker to defend against the winds, which in turn, can cause I guess some increased acidity to the wine.
Compared to Napa Valley just over the Sugarloaf Ridge to the east, they don’t get that wind so they tend to get more hotter climates and drier weather without as much coastal fog.
Of course, that has an effect on the wines they offer over there, and it was quite interesting to see how the microclimates due to the topology matters to wine making in much the same way that topology matters for rain-making and resulting in waterfalls in some drainages more so than others.
When we were about to conclude this outdoor portion of the tour, the folks that were late to the tour finally arrived.
We learned that they were having some nice duck confit with their wine tasting at Ram’s Gate, and it kind of opened our minds to maybe trying out that place the next time we’re up in Sonoma to do more wine tasting (though I’m not sure when that will be).
And so when we returned into the tunnel, we then walked over to a bit of a dining room with a long table where we had one more tasting, got to meet one of the Bundschu family, and then heard a couple of the younger ladies thirst over one of the Bundschu guys within a magazine spread.
When that was done, we then walked out of the tunnel and back into the shop where we had one final tasting at one of the stations.
Our tour ultimately ended by about 2:50pm, and then we spent a few minutes checking out the view over the pond while we did a call to Tahia because apparently Tahia’s team won for the first time today.
So there were a lot of positive vibes going about today, and maybe Mom should be present for more of Tahia’s games because every time she has attended, her team has won!
Anyways, now we had to make our way over to the Fairmont for some spa and mineral baths appointment that Julie had already booked and was really looking forward to.
Julie was definitely a bit woozy after this round of wine tasting, and even with the sandwiches in our stomachs, the alcohol still got to her.
By about 3:10pm, we arrived at the Fairmont Sonoma, and after somehow missing the visitors day use self-parking, we just parked outside the gates along the exit street.
We then checked in and promptly were walked over to our massage appointments, where a guy took care of my full body massage and a woman took care of Julie’s.
I think the massage took about an hour, and I swore that I might have dozed off during the massage.
Julie said she did the same when she was done, and I wondered if both of us snored at one point.
Anyways, we next decided to try out the thermal baths, which were really just swimming pools or jacuzzis with hot water in them.
The first couple of ones that we tried were indoors, and it was rather humid and steamy inside.
So we then went outside where we tried out the Watsu Pool for a bit before going into a warmer outdoor bath in the far corner that had bubbles.
I was definitely feeling a bit not 100% probably because I was dehydrated from the wine tastings and perhaps didn’t drink enough water (even though I did have a cup after the massage).
I think that effect kind of caught up to me because when we got back to the car at 5:45pm and parked at the Girl and the Fig at 5:55pm for our 6pm dinner, I definitely wasn’t coming in with an appetite.
By the way, the Fairmont visit costed us over $700 in total, and I swore that was a total rip off.
I don’t know if we should be doing any more of these mineral baths and spas in wine country (I know we did one in Calistoga that didn’t break the bank like this), because we’ve been to the onsens in Japan and they cost nothing like this, plus we get accommodation and even food!
I think Julie agreed with me on this one, and I sure hope we don’t do another one of these things again.
Regardless, we were seated in the tented outdoor patio, which actually felt quite warm and cozy though it was quite lively and loud in there since there was some kind of batchelorette party going on I think (or at least Julie said someone was about to get married).
We ended up getting a fig and arugula salad, which was kind of a big appetizer before we got into our duck confit as well as a flounder muniere.
The flounder with the capers over potato was as we had remembered it, but the duck confit wasn’t as crispy as Julie was hoping as it had a lot of lentils and was more stewy (almost closer to a cassoulet though not quite).
Julie was disappointed with this as she was really looking forward to the crispy duck confit, and we learned later that they tend to the chef rotates how he prepares this dish.
Our theory, however, was that perhaps it was too labor intensive to do it the crispy way that the French normally do it, and so maybe they’re trying something else to still appease customers without being too much trouble.
Whatever the case, it didn’t meet the expectations that we were remembering from our last visit to Girl and the Fig at least 3 (maybe 4) years ago.
And thus, we ended it off with a tasty profiterole (kind of like a cream puff with vanilla bean ice cream in it), and then we called it a night.
We didn’t consume any alcohol with this meal as we were pretty alcoholed out by now.
And so we then did a brief walk around Sonoma Square remembering some of the venues that we’ve dined at in the past here as well as looking at other place’s menus (some of which did have the crispy duck confit).
With hindsight being 20/20, we probably could have had our dinner at El Dorado Kitchen, which was Julie’s other choice, and perhaps we’ll have to do that the next time we’re in Sonoma.
By about 7:45pm, we were back in the car, and then we made the quick drive back to the Best Western to finally call it a night.
Unfortunately, when we tried to get into our room at around 8pm, we learned that our room keys somehow stopped working.
So we had to go to the reception to get our cards re-keyed, and then we could finally call it a night.
Of course, with my belly not being 100% (probably from the after-effects of the mineral baths) combined with the dairy from the ice cream, I was in the toilet for a bit.
But once that subsided, we pretty much just cleaned up and crashed in bed, knowing that we’re going to lose an hour of sleep due to Springing Forward.
Plus, we have a long drive ahead of us as we’re opting to go down the 101 Freeway while visiting some waterfalls along the way, knowing that the Bay Area saw a lot of Atmospheric River storms over the past month…
Day 3 (March 10, 2024 – Los Angeles, California): “Waterfalling Marathon”
It was 5:30am when I awoke to my alarm, which really felt like 4:30am (a typical workday for me) considering that we had just lost an hour of sleep springing forward.
I still don’t understand what on earth we had voted for years ago when we tried to end daylight savings time by voting to be in line with whatever the Feds do regarding nationalizing this time change madness.
Then again, there are agents in the government who can’t govern, and they’re trying to overthrow the people who are trying to execute their duties the way they were intended by the law of the land.
So I’m still not holding my breath that we might finally adapt to Nature’s clock instead of trying to make everyone force Nature to adapt to someone’s twisted idea of what’s “normal”.
Anyways, Julie didn’t get up until about 6am, but we were pretty efficient about getting our stuff together, loading up the car, and then bringing the leftovers to the brekkie room to nuke it and get some water along with muffins and a brekkie burrito.
So by about 7:30am, we were in the car on a chilly, overcast morning, and we could finally head out towards Novato to start chasing waterfalls.
The first one we pursued was over at the College of Marin, where we pursued the Ken Harth Falls.
It took us about 30 minutes of pretty smooth driving as we went down the 12 and then the 121 to the 37, without even getting on the 101 when we took the local roads towards the familiar college.
The last time I was here, the waterfall was dry, but with all the AR storms from the past month, I was holding out hope that today would be the opportunity to finally see it flow.
And this time, I also had Julie with me.
Anyways, we drove through the campus before getting to the last parking lot near the Ernie Gray Fields, and seeing the signs indicate that Sundays and public holidays didn’t require a fee to park, we were good for today.
By about 8am, we geared up and started on the hike.
We were only one of two vehicles at the parking lot when we showed up, but by the time we started the hike, there were at least two or three more cars that showed up.
We then proceeded to walk besides the two Ernie Gray Fields, where the all-dirt infield seemed to have grass growing on them.
We could tell something was out-of-place because the outfield had legitimate grass, but the infield noticeably had what seemed to be new grass growing out of the all-dirt infield.
I’d imagine all that crazy rain this area must have had throughout February must have had some influence on this (but grass growing that quickly in one month?).
Regardless, we figured Tahia might get a kick out of the photos we’d take of these diamonds because we noticed that she tends to pay attention to fields in other parks and schools.
Nevertheless, we continued walking beyond the fields and into the Indian Valley Preserve, where we walked the familiar unpaved wide road (suitable for horse traffic as evident by the hoof prints and horse poop) towards the Ken Harth Falls.
The sun was definitely creeping through the light clouds (despite the forecast calling for some showers in the PM hours of the Bay Area today), and we neglected to apply or bring any sunscreen today (so not good as far as skin growth anomalies are concerned).
Not long thereafter, we got to the signed turnoff for the Waterfall Trail, where we then got onto a narrower path lined with trees.
It was a very good sign that the creek rushing beneath the footbridge at the start of this part of the trail was flowing loudly and with volume so I knew that the waterfall should be flowing well.
So we followed the familiar forested path while Julie noticed what seemed to be droopy moss on some of those trees flanking the trail.
I wasn’t sure if they were spagnum moss or not, but this kind of shows you how wet the climate here can be considering how close to the Pacific Ocean we are here.
Eventually after going up some parallel path alongside the creek (instead of a wider path that went further away from the creek before coming back), we ultimately got to the nicely flowing Ken Harth Falls at 8:35am.
When we got here, there were a couple of people leaving, and there were a couple more above the falls before continuing further down the trail without joining us at the waterfall.
So Julie and I pretty much had the falls to ourselves for a bit, which afforded us some time to experiment with taking pictures in both fast and slow exposure.
I even scrambled up back to the main trail to check out the brink of the falls, where there were a couple more minor cascades though I didn’t bother continuing further up the trail to see if there happened to be more waterfalls here.
So after having our fill of this spot, we went back the way we came to return to the parking lot by 9:10am.
By this time, there were quite a few people getting started on their hikes, and there were even a couple of Asian-looking ladies (whom I thought must be Filipina) commenting that we must have gotten a really early start.
I agreed with that statement, and wished them well as Julie caught back up after taking a restroom break.
And with that, we then drove towards the other waterfall I wanted to pursue in Novato, which was the Buck Gulch Falls, as opposed to Pacheco Creek Falls.
It was a short drive as we left the College of Marin, and then proceeded down Ignacio Boulevard before cutting across to Fairway Drive.
This drive was so named because there was the Marin Country Club situated next to the road on one side with nice homes on the other side.
When we got to the end of Fairway Drive, we could see that there were already a handful of cars parked where it was legal (you can’t park in the cul-de-sac here).
By about 9:25am, we parked the car a little further down the road, geared up, and then started walking towards the Ignacio Valley Preserve.
However, along the way, we noticed that there were cherry blossoms in bloom in these parts, which was kind of a surprise.
It made us wonder if the cherry blossom bloom was happening in Japan or Korea already, and I’d imagine that it was indeed happening if not this week than next week (or later if you get further north).
Once we were on the actual trail itself at the end of the paved part of the road beyond the gate, we then kept right at a forking path.
The left path was a familiar one that involved crossing a stream that looked a little deeper for my liking.
And so we took the path on the right, which led to some kind of flimsy-looking plank going over Arroyo San Jose.
I wasn’t sure if this plank could take my body weight plus the day pack weight (which must be over 200 pounds all things considered), but we made it through OK and then continued on the main trail.
Just as we did this, we saw a couple of other hikers about to go back through the wider path, which meant they had to go through the creek.
We saw one guy just plow right through, and it seemed like the water was about shin deep as he did it so we decided that we made the right decision and would go back this way on the way out.
Anyways, we continued on with the hike, which was refreshing and once again it seemed like there were some hints of blue skies and definitely some sun coming out.
There was also a large group of people heading back, so we knew that this was definitely one of the more popular hikes in this area, especially considering that there ought to be quite a bit of water in the waterfall this time around.
The last time I was here nearly 2-3 years ago, the waterfall was thin, but at least it wasn’t dry like both Ken Harth Falls and Pacheco Creek Falls were.
The trail was gently climbing as we continued deeper into the Ignacio Valley Preserve, and we even had one trivial creek crossing, where someone had set up a mini-pair of cut logs as well as there being a rock to step onto to stay dry.
Eventually by about 10am, we made it to the familiar Buck Gulch Falls, where as expected, we saw that there was quite a bit more water in its flow.
There was one other couple already here, and they were on their way out but not before telling us that the views were better from the other side of the creek (something I already know, but we acknowledged what they said).
After getting our initial close-up looks at the falls (and even being joined by a woman who took a couple shot for us), we then went across the creek for that more contextual frontal view of the falls.
From back there, we could see that there was a sloping upper tier of the Buck Gulch Falls, and so we took some more time documentin the experience from there while sharing it with the lone woman who was sharing the experience with us.
After having our fill of taking photos and videos from this spot, we went back across the creek and took a few more shots of the falls from a “sitting rock” by the creek, which yielded another frontal view of the falls with a little less of the sloping upper tier.
Once we had our fill of this spot, it was just in time for another pair of parties showing up.
So Julie and I left as did the woman who was by herself that shared the experience with us.
On our way out, there were many more parties heading to the falls, and I guess it just underscored how popular this spot was, especially considering the rains that affected the Bay Area in recent weeks.
We ultimately got back to the car at around 10:30am, where there seemed to be quite a few more cars parked before the cul-de-sac at the end of Fairway Drive.
Julie checked out the cherry blossoms just a bit more before we took off again, but at the rate we were going, we probably wouldn’t make it to the next waterfall at Garland Ranch Falls until after the lunch hour.
So we promptly did that, filled up at a 76 and did a restroom run before rejoining the 101 freeway, and then went across the I-580 towards Richmond, where we then headed south on the I-880 before leaving the freeway near Berkeley.
Julie wanted to try this gluten free bakery called Third Culture, which apparently Nom Nom Paleo (someone she follows) likes to frequent.
And we eventually get there at around 11:15am, where there was actually a line to place orders.
The place wasn’t cheap as each mochinut was over $3 and the muffins were over $4, but we ultimately got 6 items.
While they weren’t as fluffy as the mochinuts we got at Modo when they were still around, I guess the ones here were legitimately gluten free so the donuts and muffins were definitely more dense.
The dark chocolate mochinut had a more Eskimo Pie-like consistency to the frosting, but the fruity-flavored ones were softer and more like what I would expect from other mochinut places we’ve tried.
We got back in the car at 11:35am, and then we continued the long drive south through San Jose and then along the 101 Freeway as we’d eventually go past the 152 turnoff through Los Banos and keep going towards the Monterey Peninsula.
This is a route that we don’t take that often, but on a day like today, where we’re trying to target waterfalls that otherwise wouldn’t be flowing, why not?
Anyways, we got off the 101 freeway (while dealing with a lot of drivers clogging the passing lane and passing on the slow lane) before getting into the town of Salinas.
Then, we drive more surface streets before getting to the Laureles Grade Road (G20) heading south towards Carmel Valley.
Oddly, the GPS had us take Miramonte Road instead of going all the way to Carmel Valley Road, and we took the misdirection past some pretty exclusive ranches before finally getting to the Carmel Valley Road right across from the Garland Ranch Regional Park.
We ultimately scored a parking spot at around 1:35pm, which was quite close to the familiar bridge over the Carmel River.
Unlike the Bay Area, down here, the weather was very nice and cool but still sunny with just a few clouds overhead.
As we walked over the bridge and onto the familiar Lupine Loop Trail towards the visitor center, we could already see that there were a handful of California poppies in bloom besides the trail.
Sure it wasn’t anywhere close to the superblooms that we’ve seen in the past, and Julie had read that the lack of one this year despite the rains has everything to do with timing.
Apparently this year, the rains all came in February and early March, which were too little too late.
Had this rain fallen earlier in the year, then the poppy seeds would have matured by now for a superbloom, but instead, the late rain meant weeds had elbowed out the poppies as they had taken hold before the more colorful species did.
By the time we made it to the visitor center, we made another restroom break while also noticing that there was some kind of ranger talk going on with an audience.
There seemed to be some pelts on display but without Tahia here, we didn’t linger for this.
We then continued on with the hike along the Lupine Loop Trail noticing more trees and hills backing the Garland Ranch Regional Park with more scatterings of orange poppies in the foreground.
There seemed to be quite a few people heading back towards the visitor center as we were going towards the Garland Ranch Falls, and it made me wonder if they were leaving for lunch or had gotten a mid-morning start to their hike.
We seemed to be in the minority of people starting their hike after or during lunch.
And sure enough, as we got towards the confines beyond the junction of the Lupine Loop Trail with the Sycamore Trail, we then climbed up along the Waterfall Trail (bypassing some closed off trails) before getting to the cool, shaded confines of the Garland Ranch Falls.
We got here at 2:15pm, and the falls seemed to benefit from the shade, which provided some coolness for some comfortable conditions.
Fortunately, this time around, the Garland Ranch Falls was indeed flowing albeit with quite a thin, slender appearance.
I knew that this waterfall didn’t have staying power, but I did see one trip report on AllTrails showing a photo of the falls 3 days ago, which kind of compelled me to take a chance on this place today.
And I was glad that it did indeed pay off.
So Julie and I took our time documenting this waterfall with more photos and videos, and for sure, I am going to have to update the photos for this waterfall just like I’d have to for the waterfalls seen earlier today.
It was also nice that we had this waterfall all to ourselves, which made the experience even that much sweeter.
I’m sure Julie will have more Instagram Reels to tout with the waterfall bonanza we’re having so far today.
After having our fill of this tall waterfall, we then walked back the way we came, made one more restroom stop at the visitor center, and then returned to the parked car at 3:05pm.
It was already getting late in the day, and I knew that continuing down the 101 Freeway all the way home would be quite the drive.
But we still had one more waterfall to visit, which was Nojoqui Falls, and as much as I wanted to visit the waterfalls in Pinnacles National Park, it would be too far out of the way today.
Anyways, we pretty much drove back along the Carmel Valley Road and then up the Laureles Grade Road before getting onto the 68, which was like a freeway.
However, GoogleMaps wanted us to take the G17 (River Road) to get to the 101 instead of returning to Salinas to get to the 101 Freeway.
And it turned out that the GoogleMaps way was assinine, but apparently other people were following GoogleMaps, too, because they ended up going on the 101 Freeway at Chualar just like GoogleMaps said to.
Indeed, this was one of the few times were GoogleMaps messed up while the Garmin Nuvi did not (usually it’s the other way around).
And so when we finally got on the 101 Freeway, we were pretty much cruising along the mostly 2-lane-per-side highway, which was bad news when you have drivers who cruise on the passing lane and clog it up.
The road etiquette is supposed to be that you keep right except to pass on the left, but a lot of people just cruise on the left and even speed up when people are passing them on the right.
So aside from those hiccups, the drive was for the most part pretty smooth, and eventually by about 6pm, we filled up some gas at an exit at Buellton.
During that time, we managed to do a Facetime call over Julie’s phone with Tahia, who was happy about her performance yesterday as she said she got two hits (though I’d learn later on that one of them was actually a fielder’s choice though it did yield an RBI).
We also saw that the opposite field hit that Mom recorded was not of Tahia, but it was of a teammate named Kalia.
I thought her swing and ability to go oppo in a line drive on a bad ball pitch wasn’t like Tahia.
Anyways, we finally made it to the Nojoqui Falls Park at 6:10pm, where there were quite a few Latino families picnicking there.
There were also quite a few cars parked there as well.
It was not as chilly when we got out of the car and geared up and got moving.
The first thing I noticed was that there was a barricade blocking any further vehicular traffic up this road, which was definitely a contrast to the last time Julie and I were here 15 years ago.
As we walked up this road, we could see lots of people making their way back, and when we got to the end of the road, we could see that technically the trail was closed, but that didn’t stop the many people from scooting past the gate to keep on hiking.
Having been here before, we knew that this was a short trail so we just did the same and eagerly went up the canyon as there was definitely foot traffic in both directions.
What was even more exciting was the fact that there was a rushing creek, which meant Nojoqui Falls ought to be flowing better than the first time we were here.
Anyways, as we went up the wide path, we did encounter a couple of bridges, but the second bridge had a barricade on it, and you had to duck between it or climb over it to get past.
There were plenty of people coming back from behind the bridge so we just got past it.
Shortly thereafter, we saw that there was a downed tree that we had to duck under before getting to the end of the trail, where there were quite a handful of people enjoying the Nojoqui Falls with a flow that I had never seen before.
That said, as we documented and examined this waterfall a bit more, we could see that there was definitely a landslide that kind of damaged the viewing area that I once knew.
That made for a rather slippery and uneven footing on the final approach as well as the viewing area, but for the most part, people (primarily Latino and maybe one group of Indians) were basking in the beauty of Nojoqui Falls before us.
That said, as it continued to get dark (as it was pretty much sunset by now or getting close to it), quite a few people were leaving.
I actually had to remove the filter from my camera lens to let in more stops of light, but we did what we could before having our fill of this spot.
On our way out, there were still a handful of people making their way towards the falls knowing how quickly it was getting oscuro, and we even encountered one Indian guy when we got back to the car looking for his friends.
We told him all we knew though we did discourage going up in the dark since it was now 7:05pm.
Regardless, we got into the car, and then headed back out of the Nojoqui Falls Park, where we did see a gate half-closed (so they weren’t kidding about the place closing at sunset).
And then we continued back onto the US101 making a left turn on the otherwise dicey left turn when people are gunning it here.
And from there, we pretty much followed the US101 back along the coastline past Santa Barbara and eventually back through the Valley.
There were still lots of drivers clogging the passing lanes, which made the drive more frustrating than it should be, but eventually when we got to Hollywood, I learned the hard way that we should have taken the 134 instead of the 101 to get to the I-5.
So after getting through some slow-and-go traffic in the Hollywood vicinity (it was Oscar’s Night after all), we then finally got onto the familiar parts of the I-5 before eventually making it home by about 9:40pm.
There were still errands to do like empty out the rental car, and then parking it at the Avis (since I can’t take off work to drive to the rental car office), and then let Julie drop off the keys tomorrow morning.
We were also quite hungry considering the last thing we ate was at 3rd Culture in Berkeley some 11-12 hours ago.
So we did have one last In N Out run at 10pm before finally returning home at 10:45pm.
I did wonder if we were better off eating at El Pollo Loco because the In N Out was very busy this night.
Nevertheless, we finally got a chance to unpack, get things organized, and try to clean up before going to bed.
With a work day tomorrow, I know I wasn’t going to get much sleep, and it was just like the old days when we were in our youth, when we’d routinely have long weekend trips to say Arizona, Utah, or Northern California.
Sometimes you just gotta seize the moment, live for the now, and deal with the consequences later.
And even in my aging body, I guess this was kind of a throwback to that mentality though I’m not sure how many more of these kinds of short-sleep days my body can handle…
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